Category: Life

To Have, Hold and Cherish, Until Bedtime

To Have, Hold and Cherish, Until Bedtime – New York Times
Not since the Victorian age of starched sheets and starchy manners, builders and architects say, have there been so many orders for separate bedrooms. Or separate sleeping nooks. Or his-and-her wings.

In interviews, couples and sociologists say that often it has nothing to do with sex. More likely, it has to do with snoring. Or with children crying. Or with getting up and heading for the gym at 5:30 in the morning. Or with sending e-mail messages until well after midnight.

In a survey in February by the National Association of Home Builders, builders and architects predicted that more than 60 percent of custom houses would have dual master bedrooms by 2015, according to Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president of research at the builders association. Some builders say more than a quarter of their new projects already do.

Game over for China’s net addicts at Beijing boot camp

FEATURE – Game over for China’s net addicts at Beijing boot camp | Reuters.com
Patients, overwhelmingly male and aged 14 to 19, wake up in common dormitories at 6.15 a.m. to do morning calisthenics and march on the cracked concrete grounds wearing khaki fatigues. Drill sergeants bark orders at them when they are not attending group and one-on-one counselling sessions. Therapy includes patients simulating war games with laser guns.

“Many of the Internet addicts here have rarely considered other peoples’ feelings. The military training allows them to feel what it’s like to be a part of a team,” said Xu Leiting, a psychologist at the hospital. “It also helps their bodies recover and makes them stronger”.

At the end of 2006, China had 137 million Internet users, an increase of 23.4 percent from the previous year. Of users under 18, an estimated 13 percent — or 2.3 million — are Internet addicts, according to a 2006 study by the China National Children’s Centre.

Addiction to the Internet is blamed for most juvenile crime in China, a number of suicides, and deaths from exhaustion by players unable to tear themselves away from marathon game sessions. In 2005, a Shanghai court handed a life sentence to an online game player who stabbed a competitor to death for stealing his cyber-sword — a virtual prize earned during game-play.

U.S. study tips scale in favor of Atkins diet

U.S. study tips scale in favor of Atkins diet | Health | Reuters
They were Atkins, the lowest in carbohydrates for the four; the Zone diet, also low in carbohydrates and based on a 40:30:30 ratio of carbohydrates to protein to fat; the Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships and Nutrition (LEARN) diet which follows U.S. government guidelines for low fat but higher carbohydrates; and the Ornish diet, which is very high in carbohydrates but very low in fat.

The study randomly assigned a group of 311 overweight, post-menopausal, non-diabetic women one of the four diets. All attended weekly diet classes for eight weeks and were given books to follow. Their weight and metabolism were then checked for the following 10 months.

Women assigned to the Atkins group lost an average of 10.4 pounds (4.7 kgs) compared to 5.7 pounds (2.5 kgs) for LEARN, 4.8 pounds (2.1 kgs) for Ornish and 3.5 pounds (1.6 kgs) for Zone, the study said.

The women on the Atkins diet also had the most improvements in terms of cholesterol and blood pressure, added the study published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Predisposition to Addiction Found in Cocaine Study

Scientific American: Predisposition to Addiction Found in Cocaine Study
The findings suggest that a lack of D2-family receptors may predict both the risk of anticipatory impulsivity as well as a predisposition to behaviors like drug and other addictions such as compulsive gambling and shopping. “This is probably one of several ‘vulnerability’ markers, for future drug addiction,” Dalley says. “What determines the final ‘tipping’ point is obviously very complex—[involving] genes and environment, etc.”

The real value of the new research may be that these receptors can provide new and more effective therapies for current addicts, says Michael Nader, a physiologist and pharmacologist at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. “This identifies a target,” he says. “If you have low D2 levels you’re more vulnerable; if you change the environment, you can increase those levels.” He suggests that treatments that stimulate production of D2 receptors could be beneficial.

“Most licensed treatments are substitution therapies”—such as methadone in the case of heroin addiction—”so they maintain the addicted state, but more safely,” says Dalley. “We feel that newer treatments should aim to prevent relapse.” He notes that the behavior of the impulsive study rats normalized after they went through withdrawal from cocaine. “The potential here,” he says, “is [in] treatments that retard the return of impulsivity in post-cocaine addicts, [which] may be an important contributor to relapse.”

Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying

Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying – New York Times

I made the mistake of sending this to one of my daughters when it was 1st published last year on Dec. 17th. She wanted to know why I had sent it to her and did I think that she should get married. Well I won’t make that mistake again. Based on the 51% divorce rate in the U.S,, maybe more couples should ask these questions before-hand. Somebody must be asking, because this article keeps showing up in the NY Times most e-mailed top 10 list. It’s back at number one again today. Continue reading “Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying”

Marooned on a Mega Yacht

Marooned off Key West
Sitting in plain view, in ankle-deep turquoise water just 3 miles away from the docks and mobs of tourists at Mallory Square, lies $30 million in treasure.

For 15 months, pirates and other assorted seafaring scalawags have tried to plunder it, but they have been rebuffed, sometimes at the point of a gun, by an unlikely swashbuckler: 63-year-old multimillionaire tycoon Peter Halmos of Palm Beach.

Update: Stuck MegaYacht Finally Free

Update Megayacht Stuck again

And today, after making peace with the U.S. government, Halmos is free to pluck his bounty from the sea. UPDATE – Still Stuck! Continue reading “Marooned on a Mega Yacht”

Iraq’s battlefield slang

Iraq’s battlefield slang – Los Angeles Times
World War II veterans invoked Murphy’s Law: “If something can go wrong, it will.” As you’ll see in the brief lexicon I’ve pulled together below, the New Greatest Generation (the generation fighting the war on terror) dubs it “the suck.” (Author and columnist Austin Bay has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. A colonel (retired) in the U.S. Army Reserve, in 2004 Austin served on active duty in Iraq.)

“Embrace the suck” isn’t merely a wisecrack; it’s an encyclopedic experience rendered as an epigram, gritty shorthand for “Face it, soldier. I’ve been there. War ain’t easy. Now deal with the difficulty and let’s get on with the mission.” Thanks to Caroline Collier for passing this on. Continue reading “Iraq’s battlefield slang”

Widow held in lottery winner’s slaying

Rio rages against accused ‘gold digging’ widow – World – theage.com.au
POLICE have arrested the young widow of a multimillionaire lottery winner while prosecutors decide whether to charge her with his killing, a crime that has gripped the country and generated public fury against a woman viewed as a ruthless gold digger.

Ms Almeida, 29, was the girlfriend of Mr Senna, a former subsistence farmer and butcher before he became rich. Mr Senna, who had part of both legs amputated because of diabetes, got around town in a motorised cart.

In July 2005, 54 year-old Mr Senna was the sole winner of a national lottery worth the equivalent of about $A30 million. He bought a sprawling ranch in Rio Bonito, a rural town 75 kilometres north-east of Rio, and married Ms Almeida.

Mr Senna’s family accused Ms Almeida of pressuring Mr Senna to change his will, removing 11 brothers and sisters as potential beneficiaries. Mr Senna wrote a new will leaving the money only to Ms Almeida and a daughter, Renata. Continue reading “Widow held in lottery winner’s slaying”